After the War
by Princess Ele
Summary: A story of what life is like after war with the Tremolos. First chapter as told by Rini.


What Rini Saw  
(Part one of After the War, a novel)  
  
by: Princess Ele  
  
-Princess Rini-  
Rini peeked between the drawn curtains that separated her room from her parent's room. Her father was awake, lying on his bed quietly. She knew that today was going to be another quiet day without news of her mother, or without hope for the others. "Papa," Rini called gently.  
  
"Come here, my precious darling," her father said as he sat up.  
  
Rini eagerly came into the room and jumped up onto the bed. She felt her father gently embrace her with the warmth she always had loved. She hugged him back, wishing it would never stop, that they would never have to go on in such fear as that they had suffer but weeks ago.  
  
But the fear was not yet over. Her mother had disappeared and mostly had been greatly injured in the war they had just finished and won against the Tremolos. The cost of winning was to great, though.   
  
Her mother had been taken away, and they had yet to know about her, but her father sensed the pain that she was going through. Her older sister, Jessalyn, had stayed with Rini, although the Tremolos wanted Jessalyn more than anybody but Rini knew. Her friends, the Sailor Scouts, had also suffered great loss.   
  
Mina had been taken first, the Tremolos mistaking her for the queen, she had been found later, dead in the bushes surrounding the palace gates that were now falling down. Lita had suffered injuries far worse than that of the palace, she had been crumpled to nothing in the final blast of the war, there was but a small hope of her waking up. Amy was lucky, she had been with the queen for most of the battle, helping to plan how they should attack, she had but minor injuries and a concussion from when the Tremolos had taken the queen. Raye had not been as lucky as Amy, but she was better off than Lita or Mina, she had just a broken leg.  
  
Trista had been at the time gates most of the time, protecting them from being disturbed from the invasion of the Tremolos, she had been unhurt from the war. Michelle and Amara were taken prisoners in exchange for the queen, but they had not been returned with the disappearance of the queen. Hotaru had gone and set off the blast, she was just like Lita, slim chances of ever living again. Ele had disappeared, she had gone after Michelle and Amara, she had not been heard from since then and no one knew what had happened to her.  
  
Rini looked up at her father. She knew that everyone had caused him pain, but his sister and his wife caused him to cry every night before he went to bed. Rini heard him cry in the night, but she rarely went to him, she was to afraid to show her own tears to him, she had to be his strength through this time.  
  
"Rini, I know it may be hurtful, but your 13th birthday is coming up soon. Do you want to celebrate it, or would you prefer to wait until your mother gets back?" her father gently asked her.  
  
"I want to wait for Mama. It would be to painful to celebrate when we don't know what is going on with her. I will wait, even if I wait forever," Rini told him.  
  
"You are strong my dear, although you aren't as strong as you think. It won't hurt you to cry, nothing helps the pain in your heart than that of tears from the windows of your soul," her father told her.  
  
"I must be strong. I can't let myself cry, for I fear that I will never stop crying again. If only this hadn't happen, if only everything was the same. Why can't mama be here, why did the others have to get hurt? Why can't everything go back to normal?!?" Rini began to shout, then she broke down in tears.  
  
"It's okay to cry, there isn't anything wrong with crying. It'll be okay, we can make it through this. We will make everything right again," her father assured her.  
  
"I hope so, Daddy, I hope so," Rini said through her tears.  
  
Rini hugged her father one more time before she went back to her room. She was going to use the wishing rock and the crystal ball to see some of the people missing. She sat cross-legged on the floor and concentrated hard. The stone glowed blue and the ball gold.  
  
Rini's eyes snapped open and she stared blankly ahead. Then the pictures began to play in her mind's eye. Her mother was not able to be shown, but she began to see a blurry picture of Amara and Michelle.  
~*~   
They were pushed down into their cell and they saw a light was lit in the room and three chairs had been placed inside, one was occupied by some creature. "Greetings, girls. I have a bargain for you, if you are willing to listen," it said.  
  
"Go on," Amara urged, her fist balled by her side.  
  
"Fine. I will leave the queen alone, if you both promise to stay the rest of your lives here. I am intrigued by you two more so than the queen. She will be hung and returned to her family, but you two will live your lives with me, being my wives for eternity," it started, "Or I will kill you all."  
  
The picture faded out, and Rini fell to the ground in a faint. She sat up after three minutes. Her vision danced before her and she rocked back and forth faintly. She set her face with determination to see Ele.  
  
Rini closed her eyes and made the wish to see Ele. The stone seemed to struggle to work as it turned pink. Then it went back to blue. Rini sealed her eyes, waiting for the picture to come. Then it came.  
  
Rini's eyes snapped open quicker this time. Her pink eyes lifeless as the image began to flicker into focus. The picture began to reveal itself, slowly. The wishing stone blinked between blue and pink and back to blue. Rini began to see it.   
~*~  
Ele was floating among the asteroids in the middle of space. Her light, soft rose mini dress was torn and tattered. Her wavy, shoulder length hair was in snarls and floating like an odd fan around her bruised face.  
  
Her body was limp, her arms spread weakly out, as if she had tried to grab onto something before she had been captured in the line of moving asteroids. She looked as if she was floating on her back in a peaceful pool. Her eyes were closed, her lips slightly parted as if she was going to whisper something to someone.  
  
A shallow breath was taken in, then breathed out as slowly as time would allow. She was alive, but barely. Her story was likely to remain untold to those close to her. She was going to die in this barren and lonely place.   
  
In the middle of her forehead, her symbol, a simple pink rose with a golden star in the middle, glowed with a dull light. The light was not enough to light her face, it barely lit the small expanse of her forehead. She continued to lie like that, floating along with the rocks in the darkness of space.  
|  
The wishing stone snapped to pink and Rini collapsed on the floor. She lay there, lifeless. "RINI!" Jessalyn, her older sister screamed. Rini just barely heard her voice as she fell into the darkness.  
  
Coming Soon:   
Finding the Cure  
(part two of After the War, a novel)  
  
  
  



End file.
